Lord Triesman: We have made no specific representations about the increased attacks on villages in the Papun district of Karen state.
	My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Ian McCartney, raised our serious concerns about the Burmese army's offensive in Karen state when he called in the Burmese ambassador on 15 June 2006 and wrote to the Burmese Foreign Minister on 5 July 2006.
	Most recently, he raised the Burmese regime's appalling human rights record at the EU/Association of South East Asian Nations Ministerial Meeting in Nuremberg on 15 March in the presence of the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister.

Lord Truscott: We make no forecast of when (a) solar power and (b) all renewables resources, expressed as a proportion of total energy consumption, will reach the same level as that of leading solar and renewables markets in other European Union member states. The renewables obligation is technology neutral and has a target of 20 per cent UK electricity from renewables by 2020.

Lord Triesman: Article 235 of the original Treaty of Rome is the same as Article 308 of the present treaty establishing the European Community. The European Court of Justice gave the following explanation of Article 235 in Opinion 2/94 of 28 March 1996 (paragraph 29): "Article 235 is designed to fill the gap where no specific provisions of the Treaty confer on the Community institutions express or implied powers to act, if such powers appear nonetheless to be necessary to enable the Community to carry out its functions with a view to attaining one of the objectives laid down by the Treaty."

Lord Drayson: As I indicated in my Answer of 5 March (Official Report, col. WA 8), the outputs of the Ministry of Defence's vaccines interactions research programme have been reported in detail in open literature publications. The interpretation of the study results was the subject of oversight from an independent panel of experts and veterans representatives, and the findings have been independently reviewed as part of the peer-reviewed publication process.
	Data from the marmoset study relating to sleep were the subject of independent academic statistical analysis and the findings were released in the paper: Multiple Vaccine and Pyridostigmine Interactions: Effects on EEG and sleep in the common marmoset published in Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior (2006 Jun; 84(2): 282-93). The Ministry of Defence is committed to openness in issues relating to Gulf veterans' illnesses and, while release of raw data alone would not be comprehensible without support from the research team, a previous offer that the team could present the findings of the marmoset study to the Royal British Legion's Gulf War Group including an explanation of the nature and interpretation of the underlying data remains open.

Lord Faulkner of Worcester: to ask the Chairman of Committees (1) what assistance is being offered to Members and staff of the House of Lords who wish to give up smoking.

Lord Triesman: As my right honourable friend the Prime Minister made clear in another place on 21 February, we welcome the Iraqi-led Baghdad security plan, and recognise the critical importance of security in the capital to the future of the country (Official Report, cols. 262-63). It is too soon to judge the plan's impact, alhough some of the early indications are that the increase in US troops is having a positive effect and the performance of the Iraqi security forces is encouraging.

Lord Triesman: We were concerned to learn of the events at Abu Dis Boys School on 14 February. Officials from our consulate-general in Jerusalem visited the school and produced a report of the events on 21 March. The report contains an assessment of events from staff at the school, including the actions of the Israeli border police, which school staff claim resulted in six pupils receiving hospital treatment for minor injuries. Our embassy in Tel Aviv raised our concerns with the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs on 22 March, which has confirmed that the matter is being investigated by the Israeli Police Complaints Bureau at the Ministry of Justice. A special investigator from the Israeli Police Complaints Bureau has also arranged to collect the testimonies from the school principal and Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association at a checkpoint instead of Ma'ale Adumim police station.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Putting the entire National Health Service in a financially sound position has been a key priority in 2006-07. The NHS and social services have a duty to work together locally, in collaboration with other partners and individuals, to provide high quality health and social care services that both meet the needs of their local population, and make the best use of available resources. The NHS has a legal responsibility to provide health and nursing care that social services are not able to provide.

Lord Davies of Oldham: In her response, published on the 26 March 2007, to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's report, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said the total cost of the Olympic Delivery Authority's (ODA) programme delivery budget, including administrative costs and around £400 million of further expenditure referred to in her evidence to the Committee in November 2006, is £570 million. This sum represents around 10 per cent of the total costs of the ODA programme of £5,254 million, net of tax, and is consistent with industry norms for a project of this scale, complexity and concentration.
	Of this the combined staffing, accommodation and IT cost of ODA and the delivery partner, CLM, is £476 million. The balance of £94 million is to cover the establishment on the Olympic Park site of the necessary provision for up to 9,000 construction workers, including health and canteen facilities and transportation.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The London Development Agency (LDA) has worked with the London Borough of Newham for many months to prepare relocation options for the Traveller groups that live within the Olympic Park site in the Lower Lea Valley. Initially agreed options were a site at Major Road and a site at Leyton Road (Chobham Farm), both in Stratford.
	The Newham Travellers expressed a strong desire to move together to one new site, and their preferred location was Chobham Farm. However, the landowner indicated that they would resist an application for a travellers' site in this locality. This would have made the site undeliverable within the timeframe required. The LDA therefore focused on Newham Council's preferred site at Major Road.
	One Traveller lodged a judicial review (JR) challenging the LDA for not applying for planning permission for the relocation site at Chobham Farm. The JR was heard on the 27 February 2007 and the judge delivered his decision in favour of the LDA on 1 March 2007. Legal costs were met from the LDA's approved budget of £1.4 billion for the acquisition and remediation of land for the games.
	The London Borough of Newham resolved to grant planning permission for the Major Road on 1 March 2007. Development will begin shortly.

Lord Triesman: The UK was instrumental in pushing for the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1591 (2005) calling for targeted sanctions, travel ban and assets freeze, on individuals from the conflict in Darfur. UNSCR 1672 (2006) gave effect to UNSCR 1591 by imposing targeted sanctions on four individuals from all sides of the conflict.
	It is completely unacceptable that there is no ceasefire in Darfur. We are working with our international partners to target further individuals responsible for atrocities and impeding the peace process, by listing them on the UN sanctions list. We are pushing for action on this issue in the UN Security Council.

Lord Triesman: The Government of Sudan have consistently failed to make good on their promises agreed at the UN high level meeting on 16 November 2006 in Addis Ababa. This included the need for a strengthened African Union (AU)-UN hybrid force for Darfur. We are continuing to press the Government of Sudan to accept this force and are calling on our international partners to do the same.
	The implementation of the existing ceasefire agreement remains a UK priority. We are looking at tougher measures, including sanctions, extension of the existing arms embargo and monitoring of military flights, to get the Government of Sudan to comply with their promises made to the international community. We are continuing to talk to international partners including the US, EU, UN and AU about this.

Lord Triesman: We are not taking steps to block receipt of money for oil exports from the Sudan. We want to ensure that any sanctions do not impact on the comprehensive peace agreement between north and south Sudan, or those who have no responsibility for violence in Darfur.
	My right honourable friend the Prime Minister wrote to Chancellor Merkel and other EU leaders on 21 March to make the case for further targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for committing atrocities in Darfur, and an extension to the UN arms embargo to the whole of Sudan, in line with the current EU embargo. We are now taking this forward with the US, other UN Security Council members and key partners.

Lord Rooker: The original depth of the Brofiscin quarry would have been approximately 6 metres below current surface levels.
	The last portion of the quarry to be filled was the eastern end. The quarry was not entirely filled and a properly engineered cap was not fitted. The ground is now covered with patchy scrub, grass and trees.
	am advised that the total area of contaminated land is around 1.26 hectares and that it contains some 72,000 cubic metres of waste material. As this estimate is based on the best available information, revision of these figures is not thought to be necessary at this time.

Lord Rooker: In Wales, responsibility for policy on waste management and contaminated land lies with the National Assembly, which receives specialist advice from the Environment Agency (EA) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA). In relation to Brofiscin quarry, the EA has looked at all the available reports—including those listed in my Written Answer to the noble Countess on 8 March (WA 72)—in developing a conceptual site model. The Welsh Assembly Government are providing funding for the development of the model to aid in the assessment of potential remediation options.
	In relation to the Maendy site, consideration was given to the report of a study carried out by the Department of the Environment in 1975.
	In respect of the Solutia site at Newport, a report was produced in 2005, which included the assessment of opportunities for bio-accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) within the food chain due to releases to the Severn estuary. The FSA reviewed this assessment and concluded that the operation was unlikely to have any unacceptable effects on the food chain.
	The EA has no information in its records concerning the origins of any wastes deposited at the Rayleigh site. This site was operated and closed prior to 1974 and neither the EA or the predecessor authority for waste (Essex County Council) was responsible for the day-to-day regulation of the site. The information that the EA holds on pre-1974 landfills is provided to it by the district council that authorised such sites, usually by way of planning permission.
	For the landfill site known as Bennett Bank, near Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, a pollution prevention and control (PPC) application was submitted on 7 May 2004 and contained an environmental setting and installation design report (ESID) together with a hydrogeological risk assessment (HRA), a stability risk assessment (SRA), a landfill gas risk assessment (GRA) and a habitats impact assessment. These reports would have all contained analytical data that the EA used in considering the application for a PPC permit for the Bennett Bank landfill sites.
	During the permitting process, further questions were asked in support of the technical aspects of the application on 9 and 16 July 2004. The responses to these contained further analytical data and were material considerations used by the EA in deciding to grant a PPC permit for the facility, a decision made on 7 November 2005.